Self-Sabotage Is Your Greatest Diet Enemy

In the past week, I have received two similar e-mails from people who have decided to start the low-carb lifestyle in earnest, but...

Don't you just love how we take that little word "but" to justify how we feel. That's exactly what both of my readers did when they went on a low-carb diet. They were all gung ho and excited about what this lifestyle change can do for them until their short-term expectations regarding weight loss didn't match the reality.

Here's the first e-mail:

Hi Jimmy,

I am 25 and after my 2nd and final child I am trying to get my body back into shape and gain some energy. My mom lost over 100 pounds on the Atkins diet and I thought what better way.

Atkins to me is a no-brainer you don't have to think a lot since you don't weigh your foods or count calories. It's very appealing for my lifestyle. Well, I started out at 219 and started Induction gung-ho and yesterday was 2 weeks. My husband is doing this with me so we keep each other motivated.

We both weighed and he had of course lost 14 pounds. However, when I went to weigh I was sure I had lost as much if not more than my husband because I had stuck to it a lot more then he had. But when I stepped on the scale, imagine my disappointment when I only weighed 216.

Aaaaack! What did I do wrong?!

I did do the shakes for breakfast because I'm not a breakfast person but I drank all my water and even pre-cooked meat for lunches. I didn't overeat!

This so disgusted me that I got off the scale and walked to kitchen to eat what was left of my son's chocolate ice cream and I had my favorite chip and dip with triscuits. UGH!

Where do I go from here? Is it okay to start again tomorrow and go back through Induction and try to just stick to meat, lettuce and 3 oz of cheese daily? I start the gym tomorrow I am just so upset with myself that I have done something wrong.

We were eating a lot of zuchinni before and I'm going to cut that out as well as tomatoes. I'll stick with eating just lettuce for my veggies and maybe some celery. So can I start Induction again and lose like I would if I was starting for the first time?

I'm not a quiter and I hate setbacks. I ate that junk out of frustration but I have made peace with my lower than expected weight loss and would like to proceed to try again to get better results. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. At least I didn't gain, but I told myself I just know I should have lost more!

Whew, did that strike a nerve anyone? How many of us have engaged in this kind of self-sabotage because we put the bar so high that we quite literally set ourselves up for failure? That's why I created The "30-In-30" Low-Carb Weight Loss Challenge to give people a modest goal of a pound a week for 30 weeks. You don't feel pressured to lose 10 pounds a week and are encouraged to just do the plan.

Click here to read the second e-mail I received as well as my response to this idea of giving up on your low-carb lifestyle when your expectations don't match your reality regarding weight loss. I'm gonna step on some toes here, but this message is too important to be missed.